Re: [Bug-gnupedia] Content Format

[Imran Ghory]

On 25 Jan 2001, at 1:46, Bob Dodd wrote:

> > Nor do I see it as desirable. Yes, we should encourage authors. No,
> > we should not support proprietary formats such as Microsoft Word. I
> > have looked at TEI (a little) and agree that it looks like a very
> > good format to use, and also has tools to translate it into HTML and
> > TeX already.
> 
> What exactly *is* the problem with (widely-used) proprietory formats?
> In the case of Word, most of the computer-literate world can, and
> does, use its front end, and many more tools can
> import/export/read/present Rich Text Format (including competing
> products) than will ever support Latex or TEI source formats. 

But nearly the entire field of mathematics uses Latex, almost every 
maths software package supports Latex.

> It strikes me that well known, well supported formats should be
> accepted. There is after all, no difference between a well known, well
> supported proprietory format, and one developed by FSF

Have you seen the Word file format, grab the Word 6 spec from,

http://fileformat.virtualave.net/text/word6fmt.zip

If you want to write a converter to XML we'll all be happy:-)

Imran Ghory